AlphaBay marketplace seizure

Operation Bayonet shut down AlphaBay in July 2017. The U.S. Department of Justice described it as the largest online darknet market at the time, and the preserved seizure notice records a legacy v2 onion address associated with the service.

Current assessment: ONLINE → SEIZED. Supporting sources appear below.

BEFORE

No reliable pre-seizure capture of this retired Tor v2 address was found in the public web archives reviewed.

AFTER

Select an available image to open the preserved archive copy.

1. 20 Jul 2017 ONLINE → SEIZED

   Authorities publicly announced AlphaBay's shutdown and displayed a seizure notice.

Domain

pwoah7foa6au2pul.onion

Category

darknet market

Current status

SEIZED

Previous status

ONLINE

First seen

Not confirmed

Last seen

Not confirmed

Changed at

20 July 2017

Action type

darknet marketplace takedown

Agency

Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, Dutch National Police, Europol

Registrar

Not confirmed

Hosting provider

Not confirmed

Country

United States, Netherlands, Thailand, Canada, Lithuania, France, United Kingdom

Related operation

Operation Bayonet

Operation Bayonet shut down AlphaBay in July 2017. The U.S. Department of Justice described it as the largest online darknet market at the time, and the preserved seizure notice records a legacy v2 onion address associated with the service.

No replacement domain or mirror has been confirmed.

Related archive records

• Hansa Market seizure — hansamkt2rr6nfg3.onion

Visual similarity alone is not treated as evidence of common ownership. Websites can copy each other. This remains one of the internet’s more dependable features.

1. AlphaBay, the Largest Online Dark Market, Shut Down

   U.S. Department of Justice

   Type: official law-enforcement announcement · Published: 20 July 2017 · Accessed: 26 July 2026

2. AlphaBay seizure banner

   seized.fyi

   Type: seizure-banner archive · Published: 20 July 2017 · Accessed: 26 July 2026

Before snapshot

Not preserved

After snapshot

Available

Official confirmation

Not confirmed

Exact takedown time

Not confirmed

Last reviewed

26 July 2026

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